Newburgh's magical season ends

Monday

Nov 28, 2011 at 2:00 AM

SYRACUSE — Maybe in a few days or weeks, Newburgh Free Academy two-way lineman Mikal Myers will reflect on this season and smile. However, at 9:15 p.m. Sunday, the pain, the emotion of this defeat was still raw. Newburgh's magical season ended with a 21-13 loss to Orchard Park in the state Class AA championship game at the Carrier Dome

Justin Rodriguez

SYRACUSE — Maybe in a few days or weeks, Newburgh Free Academy two-way lineman Mikal Myers will reflect on this season and smile.

However, at 9:15 p.m. Sunday, the pain, the emotion of this defeat was still raw. Newburgh's magical season ended with a 21-13 loss to Orchard Park in the state Class AA championship game at the Carrier Dome.

Newburgh staked Orchard Park, which capped a 13-0 season, to a 21-0 third-quarter lead. After the final whistle blew, the Goldbacks were not only smarting from the loss, but two questionable plays that led to two Orchard Park touchdowns.

"They are a tough team, a great team. We fought as hard as we could," said Myers, who will play at the University of Connecticut next season. "We just came up short. I guess, at some point, I will say this is a great season. We won four games last year; this year we made it to the state championship. If I would have told you that before the season, nobody would have believed us."

Still, the sting of the loss may last longer because of the two game-changing controversial calls. The play Newburgh (10-2) might be talking about all offseason came with Orchard Park up 7-0 with 6:33 remaining in the third quarter. From the wildcat formation, Orchard Park quarterback Jimmy Fitzgerald, used exclusively in the scheme, hit Ben Johnson for a 33-yard pass to Newburgh's 2-yard line. However, replays appeared to show that Johnson was out of bounds when he came down with the ball.

Newburgh coach Bill Bianco went ballistic after the call and was hit with an unsportsmanlike penalty, moving the ball to the Newburgh 1-yard line. Fitzgerald punched it in from there to make it 13-0.

"It's tough when on the scoreboard (video) we all see that it was out of bounds," said Newburgh quarterback Mark Risio, who completed 9 of 23 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns. "It shouldn't have been called a catch, but mistakes are part of the game. The refs made one, but you couldn't do anything about it."

A representative for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association said the referees were unavailable for comment.

"We didn't get much help. In a big game, you'd like to think you lose because you lose," Bianco said. "When kids go through an offseason and they work out three hours a day, you just hope the game is won or lost because you won or lost it. Not because of an outside factor. In a game like this it hurts, it really hurts. It wasn't even close."

Orchard Park, which overcame a 17-point halftime deficit to defeat Monroe-Woodbury 21-17 in the 2008 state Class AA title game, went up 7-0 lead on a 25-yard pass from David Crowley to Ben Johnson with 8:14 left in the first half. However, on the fourth-and-12 play, a Buffalo News photographer captured the image of the ball touching the turf as Johnson hauled it in.

Trailing 21-0, Newburgh mounted a last-ditch comeback. Risio hit tight end Mike Esposito for a 71-yard touchdown 1:48 into the fourth quarter and connected with Aaron Johnson for a 21-yard score with 2:37 remaining.

On Newburgh's last play, from Orchard Park's 39, Risio heaved a ball to the end zone. It was picked off by Okoya Anderson, who fought off Newburgh players trying to rip the ball out of his hands.

Anderson's grab was good and, for the record, he thought the controversial/game-changing Fitzgerald to Johnson catch was good, too.

"I didn't watch the replay, but it looked like a good catch to me," Anderson said. "From my angle, it was a good catch."